Thursday, July 21, 2011

Just desserts...

I've fought the confectionary craze from the beginning of my soaping adventures. I'd think "Who the hell wants to wash themselves with a freakin' cupcake?" but years into this, I've discovered that, indeed, SCORES of soap freaks wanna wash themselves with cupcakes. And pie....and cake slices....and pointy odd soap...and on and on. Who knew?! How dull am I?! I've also discovered through online reviewers and customers that many people get around the oddness of the shapes by cutting their soaps into chunks, or smaller slices as they go to use them. Whack a piece off, and you're good to go. Non-soap embeds are easily removed before showers and let's face it...it's just a lot more fun sometimes. So what the hell am I waiting for? Time to start more experimenting!

I've been searching for a coffee blend for a long time. Most all of them miss the mark for me. They are often too bitter, too strong, too one-noted, too gross. A soap trio of tea and coffee soaps would even be nice, (she says, digressing). The blend I'm working with here is a rich, fresh brewed coffee, with really yummy back notes of chocolate, vanilla, and goosed even futher with some cinnamon stick embeds and coffee beans. The cinnamon stands out in the unscented top layer, nicely. My hubby had to break out the mitre saw to cut the sticks for me. Those suckers are like rocks.

No offering up my soul to the alter of the vanilla stabilizer gods, this time. I'm going for a dark, coffee-esque base with a frothy pure white piped top. (Thank you, titanium dioxide.) After figuring out placement, I bedazzled with sparkles, coffee beans and the cinnamon sticks, in what I think turned out to be a cute end result.

It heated up BIG TIME in the mold, and I was sure I was going to have a crack situation on my hands. The fact that it's hotter than the surface of the sun outside, the last few days, isn't helpful. I wanted it to gel but this is ridiculous. Luckily, it saponified without incident. Whew.

So...this might be a fun range to get into after all. Of course, like with most new undertakings, I realize that it starts a snowball effect and more changes need to be made. I currently use soapboxes for packaging and they've always worked well for me. I don't think these kinds of soaps are going to work with this packaging now, so I'll need to reconsider the options....again. I need to consult my crafty customer greeniebeanie, maybe. She could build a wing on my house with some constuction paper and a glue gun. I SO didn't get that gene.

7 comments:

Ohhh so lovely, you have those tops just perfect; that is one lovely soap! I have also wondered about the whole foody thing.. I tried mocha soap before and it just never flew.. maybe tastes are changing?

A perfect confection!I too wonder why people want to wash with foodie soaps-but viva la difference(it's what makes the world go round!)btw-if I were to use a foodie soap-I sure would be into Spiced Mocha Dolce-Yum!